The Ethersmith [Runesmithing Progression Fantasy]

Vivi's consistency with three-runed swords had improved drastically within the last two-weeks of daily runesmithing. Her completion rate was nearly a hundred percent, so long as she warmed up and didn't aim to shape the absolute perfect set of veins. The tighter the veins, the higher the chance of failure, of course.

Blossom was still her best sword, but Vivi was practicing, and slowly closing in on the level of precision required to reliably craft something on Blossom's level. From there, she could move to four-runed attempts.

The oddest part of her new lifestyle, however, was definitely her collection of ether roots. Vivi still felt a sense of unease as she looked into her glistering sack.

Everything was expensive. The cheapest ether root she had was a palladium root. The sack was filled with high tier mithrils, adamantite, locium—every ether root that Grandpa considered dream roots far too expensive to use. Vivi worked on them daily for her own simple projects.

Not that the roots cost her anything. Spending some ten thousand wisps on resources didn't leave any dent at all to her massive ether reserves. But it still felt weird to work with ether roots that she used to look up to as mythical rarities. She used adamantite for the simplest two-runed swords.

Nonetheless, she tied an adamantite root to the vise and initiated her next project.

"Do you have a vision in your head?" Lucius asked when the root began growing.

"The core root will of course be the shockwave rune, Vivi thought. It will be followed by a mass and a sharpness rune. It's important for the shockwave rune to be in the middle. The ether it shapes will pass through the metal from the core, through the other two runes, and the shockwave will then essentially be enhanced by the two other runes.

"Ooh, I see," Lucius said. "This sword will be ranged like my claws, then?"

Yes, Vivi thought. I'm not sure which will be more powerful. Hopefully the sword is at least as powerful.

A slight line appeared on Lucius's face. His claws hadn't seen much use in ages. He just didn't do enough damage for the claws to see real use. Back in the blight, Vivi had mostly used Lucius's claws to clear vegetation, and now she occasionally used them as a tool more than a weapon.

Let's focus on the project, Vivi thought. I'll work close to the limit today. Failing would hurt, but I don't want to craft junk either.

Lucius focused. He wasn't fully invested, knowing that the sword would be sold. Lucius tended to only put his best in when Vivi was working on her limits alongside him. Still, his control over ether was smooth enough for Vivi to work without any problems.

The project progressed smoothly. The first root went by in a flash, and forming loops with the second root felt smooth. Navigating the third root through the second was always difficult, but Vivi only started to feel nervous during the last few branches. Even then, the nervousness wasn't overwhelming, just a slight increase in heartbeat.

Just like that, the veins were done. Creating three-runed swords had become somewhat of a routine.

"I'm getting better and fast," Vivi said, examining her work. "I never used to see progress like this. I've improved more in two weeks than I did in months on the surface."

Lucius smiled. "Must be thanks to your magnificent companion."

"Sure, let's go with that," Vivi said, amused.

The next ten hours were spent carving runes and blacksmithing. To choose the metal for the blade, Vivi just had to look back to her fundamentals. She was crafting a heavy mass sword. The weapon's purpose was to throw powerful blows to cut through hordes of smaller critters—as in, monsters that had an aura worth less than five thousand ether.

The heaviest metal Vivi had was asmite, making it an easy choice. Lucius was confused about why Vivi would use such a low tier metal when more expensive options were available. Vivi reminded him that asmite was far from a low tier metal. Out of her options, asmite was the bulkiest, and it would be the most effective for the upcoming storm season, despite not being the prettiest one.

With that, the sword was done. Vivi ran ether through it to confirm it worked. As Vivi moved it lightly, the blade reacted with the air around it, ready to create a shockwave if she slashed any harder. That could be dangerous if wielded incorrectly. But the sword worked, and Vivi moved to sharpening and finishing touches.

With the sharpening done and runes protected, Vivi yawned and glanced at the clock. Fourteen hours had passed since she woke up.

"An uneventful day, huh?" Vivi said. She could have already gone back to sleep.

She had woken up early, however. It was still late evening. The facets would still offer light outside, and most of everyone would be awake. Vivi had a lot of work to do outside the smithy as well.

She stood and stretched, swapping out her smithing apron for her raincoat.

Lucius's tail saw movement. "The first storms will be spawning soon. We're finally hunting again."

"We'll see," Vivi said. "It's not like Coshi specifically needs us. I'd just like to participate for experience. The city needs my swords more than my swordsmanship."

Vivi placed her new sword into spatial storage and stepped out of her smithy, her door chime wishing goodbye.

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The street outside her smithy, surprisingly, wasn't crowded anymore. Not by customers, that was—the lines had been replaced by construction materials. Bales of bricks and pipes littered the street, and scaffolds covered building facades. Construction workers surrounded what felt like every building. Surgeways were being constructed, and the smell of booze and old wood was entirely gone. The few completed sections of the street were starting to resemble the upper levels.

Seeing Vivi, the demons saluted before moving back to their jobs.

Vivi still thought all this was excessive, but there were benefits to Lucas's operation as well. Namely, the building directly to her right—what used to be another rotting wooden tavern. The old tavern was unrecognizable now. The exterior walls had been replaced with silvery hardwood. The wood didn't seem to be painted; the wood itself was actually silvery, coated with lacquer to make it shine. Columns and windowsills all had excessive patterns carved into them, and were painted blue to match Vivi's smithy.

Above the front doors, engraved into the wall and painted blue, a sign read, "Runes And Rain Company: Managers of The Lost Raindrop."

Lucas had come up with that. Everything he did was so insanely excessive.

The foyer welcomed Vivi with more paintings of rainfall—a cutely decorated waiting room that followed a similar theme as Vivi's smithy. The theme she'd decided on a whim for her smithy had now been turned into a full business district.

"Ah, Vivi!" an enthusiastic voice said. Senith's wide smile rose from above the counter. She wiped her forehead of sweat and ran to Vivi.

Senith wasn't clad in a dress like usual. She wore a casual tunic fit for work with her hair tied to a ponytail—an outfit that, honestly, matched Senith's carefree mood a lot better.

She grabbed Vivi's hand, grinning wide, and immediately pulled Vivi to the receptionist's desk. "Look at what I found on the bottom shelf from The Lord's Liveries."

A plushie sat on the desk. A red cat with a mushroom wrapped around its head, smiling goofily. It wore a miniature raincoat with the hood up. Cat ears poked out from the hood.

Lucius scowled at it from Vivi's core, while Senith brimmed with enthusiasm. "I gave it a raincoat, of course. I've been getting better at making them. I still need to find an umbrella for it."

"Wait, you've been making raincoats?" Vivi asked.

"Yes?" Senith said. Then her face reddened. "Do you like it? The reception hall?"

Vivi glanced around herself. A part of her felt embarrassed to see her style spread out of her smithy, but everything did look good, and the decorations weren't an exact copy of Vivi's smithy. The overall colors were more light-hearted and mystical, as Senith liked them, and not everything was rain themed. The counter itself was silver and rich.

"It's amazing," Vivi said. "I'm surprised you're working on this yourself."

"Of course I am," Senith said. "That's why it looks good."

Vivi smiled. The expression always came out on its own near this silly woman.

"Is Lucas here?" Vivi asked. "I have more swords ready."

"Yes, follow me," Senith said.

The next room over was without furniture, clearly still a work in progress. In the corner was a lone workdesk, lit by a tall window. Lucas sat at it, his seat surrounded by paperwork.

He lifted his head. His eyes took a moment to adjust to the room. There were slight lumps underneath them. "Ah, good, you're back. Hello."

Immediately, Vivi asked, "How is Grandpa?"

"Lortel says he's doing well," Lucas said. "Not amazing, but he will most likely survive."

Vivi nodded. That was the same thing she'd heard a few days ago. "Any other news?"

"Depends on what you consider news," Lucas said. He straightened a stack of papers and stretched, vaguely smiling. "Would you like to hear the offers you've received?"

Vivi hesitated before saying, "Sure."

"We've received a total of four hundred and sixty serious offers to buy your runeswords, and another two thousand low ball offers below a million ether."

Vivi stood still, unblinking.

"The lowest offer we'll ever consider is a million ether for a quick single-runed sword," Lucas said. "The average price of serious offers seems to be around five million ether for a top-notch sword. A few nobles are battling for priority. Lord Estavan has bumped his offer up to twenty million ether. He expects, in his words, 'the most beautiful sword the girl can conjure.' Ah, and only if you can get it done before storm season begins."

"We should accept that," Lucius said. "The Luminary only offered five million for this sword."

Yes, but Coshi will use the swords to actually defend the city. And Coshi promised to give me a cut of earnings from the storms. Shivenar needs the swords to defeat storms. Estavan just wants a sword.

"Tell Lord Estavan that twenty million is a decent price, but he needs to wait until storm season is over," Vivi said. "I'm working with Coshi for now."

Lucas agreed without arguments. He usually gave Vivi suggestions on what swords she should craft to best develop the business. Today, however, a more serious expression took over his face.

"Coshi wished to meet you as soon as you showed yourself," he said. "New forecasts have arrived. It's believed that one of the mountains is at risk of being reanimated."